The Boys Are Back in Town
by theflowerandthestag
Summary: Just a one-shot about the Marauders coming back together as a group after the Whomping Willow incident.


A/N: This needed to be written. The title comes from the Thin Lizzy song. It came on the radio the other day and... I just had to write this.

This story actually kind of got away from me. I apologize if it's word vomity. I did have it edited but there is a chance both of us missed something.

As always I own nothing you recognize.

The Boys Are Back In Town

It had been unquestionably quiet in the Gryffindor common room for several weeks. This was due in part to the lack of communication between Hogwarts key trouble makers. No one in Gryffindor knew what caused the sudden rift between the once tight group of friends.

Instead of being dragged into conversation with his three best mates Remus Lupin could often be seen sitting with Lily Evans, doing homework or just sitting there. James Potter and Peter Pettigrew were often spotted playing chess or James would often tutor Peter in the classes he didn't understand, which was unfortunately all of them. Sirius Black was usually nowhere to be found within the common room, so that generally meant that he was sitting up in the boys dorm on the windowsill smoking a cigarette.

Today was really not so different for a Monday. Remus Lupin was going over Transfiguration notes with Lily Evans. James Potter was actually doing his homework for once, as Peter Pettigrew had mysteriously disappeared earlier that day, after Potions class. The only difference was that Sirius Black had decided to make an appearance. He sat in one of the chairs closest to the fire, staring into it broodingly.

There was a sudden burst of noise as the portrait swung open and in stumbled short, round little Peter. Remus looked up at the noise and let out a choked laugh. As did James. As did Sirius. All three in separate corners of the common room reacted at the same time. Peter trudged over to James, four neon green tentacles had sprouted from his face. Instead of arms he had rather large canary wings and instead of legs he had the bottom of a goat.

James was now full on laughing, clutching his sides and wheezing for air.

Peter pouted, which looked strange on his tentacle face, "This isn't funny, Prongs." He said whining a lot more than he had intended.

James attempted to gather some sort of grip on his laughter, "Y-yes it is."

"It was quite terrifying!" Peter exclaimed in a watery voice. "H-he cornered me after Potions!" Peter was flapping his canary wings angrily.

James stopped laughing, and arched his eyebrow, "You were attacked?"

"Of course! Did you really think I would do this to myself?" Peter was borderline squawking now. "Mulciber attacked me after Potions! I've been hiding around for hours waiting for it to be late enough that there wouldn't be as many people out!"

James picked up his wand that was lying on the table beside his charm book and began the tedious job of removing the charms and hexes from Peter.

Remus quietly made his way over as James began to curse; he was terrible at removing charms. He quietly tapped James on the shoulder, "Shall I take over?"

James was a bit surprised but nodded. "Yeah. You know I'm bloody awful at those things."

Sirius was no longer observing the fire, but had turned his attention to the three boys. He surprisingly got out of his seat and walked over to them. "You're certainly good at casting them though," he said rather quietly.

With a jerk of his head, James made eye contact with Sirius and grinned a bit, "Well I've never had much practice with removing them."

From his position on the other side of Peter, Remus snorted, "You're lucky I have."

Looking a slight bit uncomfortable Sirius let out a cough, "Would you like some help? Pr-James is likely making it worse."

Remus nodded wordlessly while James stepped out of the way. After several minutes of hard work Peter was relatively charm and hex free (he was still molting a bit) James's eyes lit up. "You know what this means right?"

Noticing the glint in his eyes, Sirius nodded, "This means we get even."

"I do believe it's time for Operation: Big Three."

Letting out a sigh Remus nodded, "I suppose one prank will be fine."

The boys all piled together, traipsing off up to the boys dorm.

Peter could be heard saying, loudly (he was never one for quietness) "Hey guys! What's Operation: Big Three?"

Over the next few days it was like the rift between the boys had never happened. There were still some silences and awkward looks, but they were talking again. And if they were talking again that meant that mayhem would soon follow.

Nothing could be truer. On Friday morning at breakfast the four boys were sitting in their seats, innocently enough. James was piling heaps of eggs onto his plate, Sirius was gnawing at some bacon, Remus was nibbling on a lightly buttered piece of toast, while Peter was shoving everything within his arms reach into his mouth. No one noticed when James quietly shot a spell at Mulciber just as mail was arriving.

All at once the owls forgot what they were doing and dived at Mulciber, and promptly emptied their bowels. All over him. And on his food. And on his seatmates food. It was a mess. Quite a mess.

Sirius winked at James, "Without a hitch."

"Did you ever doubt me?" James responded, the playful banter coming just as easily as it used to.

Remus heaved a sigh, "I suppose it's on to phase two."

"You're the best with the animation charms," Sirius pointed out.

Remus just took the final bite of his toast and downed the rest of his pumpkin juice, "If I get in trouble for this I shall be very cross."

Sirius just looked down, a bit awkwardly. Remus had every right to be angry and not help at all, especially after what he'd done. Sirius had been so… so angry at Snape for what he'd said about his younger brother he'd snapped. He hadn't been right in the head when he'd told him about the knot on the Whomping Willow, the one that froze it. He clearly hadn't been thinking when he'd told him to follow Remus there on the full moon. He must have been out of his mind for even thinking that it would be hilarious prank and that Snape would come out unscathed. Luckily for him James had been right in the head, thinking, and in his right mind and he was gone to save the prat before Sirius had finished telling him what he'd done.

"Enough with this being angry and awkward thing. Phase two, Moony!" James demanded using Remus' nickname for the first time since the incident.

Remus trudged out of the Great Hall like he was walking to his doom, James, Sirius, and Peter following him.

Remus walked up one flight of stairs before he came to the first suit of armor. He looked back at the other boys, all three of whom were urging him on. He pulled out his wand and muttered "_Locomotor". _

All of a sudden the suit of armor stood at attention, after giving Remus a stiff bow. Remus quickly gave the suit of armor his instructions before moving on to the next one.

When Remus had completed charming all of the suits of armor on the first three floors, he was quite tired. "Is that alright?"

Sirius nodded. "He has charms for his first class today."

"How do you know this?" James asked with an arched eyebrow.

Sirius mysteriously replied, "I have my ways."

"That means he asked that Mary girl in Hufflepuff." Peter piped in.

"You aren't supposed to give away my secrets!"

James hushed the two boys. "He's coming and it looks like he's cleaned himself up." He grabbed a hold of Remus and dragged him behind a statue, waving the other boys to follow.

Mulciber was storming up the stairs, his wand out. He'd obviously encountered the first two floors worth of suits of armor. The first floor was quite easy to get past. He merely needed to tell them to stand down, whether he worked that out the boys didn't know. On the second floor is where things got a little harder. Each suit of armor would stop him in the hall and ask him a riddle. Mulciber was smarter than he looked if he could get past Remus' riddles.

This floor, the third floor would be much tougher. Mulciber reached the first suit of armor. It jumped out at him, sword raised, indicating that it wished to start a duel with him. Mulciber just stared at it, slack jawed.

"You would have thought he would have gotten used to it by now," James muttered to his friends.

The boys remained in their hiding spot watching as Mulciber got thoroughly trounced by a suit of armor and took off running down the stairs.

"He didn't even try," Sirius stated sounding quite put out.

"Psht. Coward."

The boys made their way down to the dungeon, they missed their first class of the day having to go around and remove the charms from the suits of armor. It was time for phase three. They had to make sure that they were early to Potions.

"Why do I have to be his partner?" Sirius grumbled.

"Because you're the best at potions out of the lot of us. That and you haven't done anything yet," Remus stated, following him into the classroom and taking his seat by Peter.

Sirius sighed and stood around, waiting until the class slowly filled up. It just so happened that Mulciber's usual partner, Avery, met an unfortunate incident when walking into the classroom and had to hurry to the Hospital Wing.

Sirius sighed and continued to stand, watching as the seats were filled. James somehow got lucky and ended up partnered with Lily Evans.

Slughorn came in, "Mr. Black, please take a seat next to Mr. Mulciber, it looks like you two are both without partners today."

Sirius trudged over looking none too happy about his predicament, even though he had volunteered earlier in the week. Mulciber looked just as unhappy.

Slughorn went about teaching the class, jovially as usual, completely unaware of what was about to happen.

Once the practical part of the lesson began Sirius refused to be the one to get up and get the ingredients from the storage cupboard so Mulciber went off grumbling under his breath.

Sirius looked at the ingredients on the board. With just a few additions the potion they were making could be turned into a rather potent love potion. While Mulicber was gone Sirius reached into his bag and pulled out some rose thorns, the other boys had no idea why he had been keeping them in his bag when he'd told them about it and they rather liked to keep it that way.

When Mulciber returned with the ingredients Sirius slyly switched the rose thorns with the ash root, Mulciber was totally oblivious.

All was going well in the class, nothing had exploded in the classroom…so far. As soon as Mulciber added the rose thorns to the cauldron, it exploded with a puff of pink smoke. The class all quickly covered their noses, except for Mulciber.

He had a glazed over look on his face and stood inhaling the pink smoke. Slughorn raised his wand and cleared the smoke quickly. "My dear boy what on earth did you do?"

Mulciber looked at Slughorn with his glazed over eyes and began to loudly spout out words of love for the portly professor.

Slughorn looked mildly concerned as the boy tried to make his way towards him, still proclaiming his never ending love.

"Oh dear, oh dear, it seems Mr. Mulciber got rose thorns and ash root mixed up," Slughorn stated as Mulciber yanked off his robes yelling, "I CAN NO LONGER HANDLE IT! PROFESSOR I AM YOURS!"

Slughorn turned a bright red, "Oh dear, class dismissed. Mr. Snape if you could take Mr. Mulciber to the common room, I'll whip him up an antidote."

The class filed out of the classroom. James, Remus, and Peter hung around out front waiting for Sirius.

When he finally emerged there was a smirk on his face that hadn't been present in quite a few weeks, he slung an arm over James shoulder, "Well, looks like the boys are back in town."


End file.
